Agricultural rituals were conducted in ancient religions in order to gain the gods' favor.
The most fundamental need was to ensure plentiful crops.
- Dances around the fields were part of the ceremonies, as was sprinkling the earth with sacrificial blood, occasionally human blood.
- Cattle were also sacrificed to the gods who oversaw the earth's fertility.
- Phallic rituals were popular as fertility symbols.
- The vegetative cults included incantations and invocations to chthonic deities on a regular basis.
Moreover, suppliants marched across the fields in procession, offering petitions to the divinities in charge of growing, ripening, and mature harvests.
- Rain rituals were particularly elaborate.
- Magic formulae, thundering music, and, finally, joyous dancing and eating were among them.
- Despite ethnic and geographical differences, all of these vegetative cults were essentially the same.
- They hoped for the great, invisible forces of nature to work in their favor.
You may also want to refer to my Comprehensive list of World Pagan Religious Terms And Concepts.
